Table Of The Olympians
HEROES OF OLYMPUS TABLE OF THE OLYMPIANS ' ' NOTICE NO PEGASUS AND ZEBRAS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF THIS STORY. IF YOU'RE WONDERING ABOUT LEO VALDEZ'S CONDITION AFTER CHAPTER FIVE, HE'LL BE FINE. Synopsis: A very powerful item is needed for the construction of the Argo II ship. Leo discovered that the item is located in one of the Casinos in Las Vegas, namely in "The Table Of The Olympians". When Jason, Piper, and Leo have set off to collect the item, it turns out that it isn't easy as they thought. They'll have to get the item the hard way: like thieves robbing the bank. A story full of action, humor, friendship, drama, and Spy Gadgets. Notes: The Story will have some cleanup, so there maybe some awkward phrases and wrong grammar that hasn't been fixed, but nothing big. Read on, good sir! If you find something uncomfortable in the writing, leave a comment in the talk page and let's see what we can do. Status: In Progress. Updates once or twice a month. Warning: Ship-teases, lots of action and a Leo Valdez getting angry at Chapter Five. If you're having a hard time reading on this site, you could always swoop in the Fanfiction dot Net edition. Art Notes: The Cover is done by me. ---- Set One: Escape From The Casino JASON I JASON When he was dragged to the godly roulette table, Jason knew something was about to go wrong. They forced him into a seat and gave Jason a toothless grin. Jason smiled back uneasily. He then began tapping his earpiece that was attached on his right ear, waiting for any word from Leo and Piper. He couldn't hold them any longer; everyone at the casino was making Jason edgy. "Well, place your bets!" cried the dealer to his guests (who appeared to be mortal), "Round seven hundred and eighty two is about to start!" Then the whole table was beginning to cram with teenage-looking gods, watching the small ball spin around the opposite direction of the wheel, and started throwing chips to the layer in an ungodly manner. Jason slowly made his way out of the crowd, hoping that the Cyclopes didn't see him. Unfortunately, one of them stepped in front of him, its bulky muscles stretching out his suit, and one eye squinting. "Where do you think you're going, half-blood?" Uh-oh. "Uh, I…have to go to the restroom," Well, it was true. His hands were both itchy. It was probably the side effects of applying the powder to disguise his demigod scent from monsters and the gods alike. On the bright side, the Cyclops let him go, though his big eye was still staring at the back of Jason's head. He walked through a crowded hall to find the nearest men's restroom. He found an empty one, most likely because gods did not use toilets. Jason stepped in, locked the door, and breathed a sigh of relief. He decided call the others to check if everything's okay. "Oh, we're fine here," Leo grumbled, probably in a middle of something,'' "just…some small difficulties, but we're able to…ow."'' There were sounds of static and metal scraping from the other side of the line. A minute later, it stopped. "Alright, it's open!" Leo cheered, "But…my hand's slightly burnt. Don't know why though…" "Listen guys," Jason said, "the monsters are on to me now. We don't have much time. We'll have to continue tomorrow if we don't want to get them suspicious." "No way," ''Leo and Piper said in unison. ''"We need that material as soon as possible. It's an important piece for the ship! The blueprint says it won't run until it has it!" "What Leo is trying to say," Piper chimed in,'' "is that we just need a little bit more time. Just…hold on, and least we could do is break down the barrier so you can enter."'' "Then what are you waiting for, princess?" Leo said, "Get in." Piper didn't respond right away. "Oh…wow, that looks small…and uncomfortable." Leo sighed, clicking his tongue. "Right…and here you are, talking about small metal cave holes when your boyfriend's already in trouble. I'm going in." "W-what do you-? He's ''not my boyfriend, Leo. Ugh, step aside."'' Jason decided to leave his friends to their jobs. He stared to himself at the mirror for a moment. He hated to admit it, but he looked good on a tuxedo. Though, he couldn't imagine the look on Annabeth's face if she would learn that they were gambling in an actual casino. Jason shook the thoughts from his head and walked towards the exit. But when he came out of the bathroom, he was surrounded by three giant Cyclopes. Apparently, one of them was Ma Gasket, the she-Cyclops they had been fighting for quite a while. She was wearing a brown formal dress that didn't suit her at all. "Well, well, well," she grinned wickedly, "The son of Jupiter, here at the Table of the Olympians? What a lucky night." Jason took out his coin, deciding whether to attack or to defend. He looked around for anything that could help him get out of this ambush. Then he had an idea. Jason ran straight towards one Cyclops (who was Sump, one of the she-Cyclops's sons), dropped down and slid between the creature's legs. Then Jason jumped over a table where a game of blackjack was happening and continued to run. The minor gods inside the casino looked either confused or aggravated as he passed by them. The monster family was still hot on his trail. He flipped his coin, and when caught in mid-air, it turned into a sword. Jason stopped and turned to face Torque who was able to catch up. Jason slashed the legs of the monster. The Cyclops stumbled down and groaned. The demigod brought his sword's tip to the monster's chest and watched him turned into a pile of sand. From the corner of his eye, Jason saw a flower vase shot towards him. He quickly dropped down to avoid it and, for unknown reasons, crawled under a poker table. Though, someone caught him by the legs and pulled him away. Jason was dangling up-side down and he could smell Sump's garbage breath. Jason wasted no time and swung his sword, simply to behead the monster and saw him quickly disintegrated. Jason fell on his back, slightly groaned, and stood up to continue to outrun the horde of monsters. "Stop fooling around!" Ma Gasket bellowed, "Get that half-blood!" Just then, a dracanae blocked Jason's path. She was dressed in a red cocktail dress for the occasion. She would have looked pretty if it wasn't for the long evil-looking spear she was holding and the annoyed look on her face. The dracanae hissed at him and lashed the tip of her spear straight to Jason's chest. Jason sidestepped to the left, but the spear was able to graze his right shoulder. Before she would perform her second attack, Jason lashed his own weapon and beheaded the creature. He didn't watch her disintegrate, as he was too busy examining the wound he received. It felt like it was burning against his skin. His eyesight blurred. Jason took off his bloodied suit and ran to find someplace to hide. Unfortunately, Ma Gasket was already ahead of him. Jason tried to run away from her but Ma Gasket moved too quickly; she grabbed Jason by the neck with her big hand and lifted him up to the air. "You cannot run now, half-blood." She said with glee, "I had sworn my vengeance upon you and your friends for killing us far too many times." Jason couldn't move. He tried swinging his sword, but the graze on his shoulder was too painful. There was only one choice. He bit the Cyclops's finger. Cyclopes were immune to fire, but apparently they weren't immune to teeth bites. "Yaah!" she shrieked, letting go of Jason. Using his remaining energy, Jason lashed his sword to Ma Gasket's legs. She fell back and wailed. "You will pay, son of Jupiter! One day, Mother Gaea will smite you down!" Jason stood up, his legs wobbly but was able to maintain his balance. He raised his weapon to the protesting creature's chest. "Sorry, but you kept saying the same thing over and over again." And with that, he stabbed the monster and Ma Gasket quickly turned to sand. He considered the moment and took a deep breath. No monster was chasing him right now. The wound on his shoulder was still throbbing. He suddenly felt dizzy. Leo, Piper, you have to hurry, ''he thought. Jason was about to collapse to the ground when an alarm exploded throughout the building. ---- PIPER II PIPER '''Piper didn’t like going to Sin city. '''Sure, it was the most fun place in the world, but there were other things in Las Vegas that made her uncomfortable. But here she was, creeping in a ventilation shaft inside the gods’ local casino with Leo, about to steal something that could only be used once. Piper was more worried about Jason, though. The casino was not only full of gods from Olympus, but there were more monsters than they had originally thought. And Leo noticed in his investigation that the material—Zeus’ sky stone—was heavily guarded by a strong barrier that prevented children of the Big Three to go any further. And said material could be only carried by children of Zeus (or Jupiter) because of its powerful force that would, err, blow anyone away. It was up to them to lift the barrier and set the next job to Jason. Piper jumped down from the shaft to the floor, followed by Leo, who almost slipped when he landed. He said something about marble floors always trying to break his head and scanned the room. It looked like a normal hall from a museum, with displays of ancient vases probably dating way back, and paintings that had people face sideways. Behind them were two oak doors, the exit. The only thing that stands out from all of these things, hanging at the end of the hall, was the familiar painting of King Henry VIII of England, except he was holding a red tennis racquet. “Entertainment within entertainment,” Leo said, “if you count staring at two thousand year old pictures fun.” “Well, sometimes it is.” Piper said. Reading stories about the Greek gods was fun. Leo stared at the end of the hallway, rubbing his chin. “I’ve seen enough movies that would tell me something will trigger if we take five steps forward.” Even if he meant it as a joke, Piper briefly agreed, though they were specifically in the control room, with said controls hidden behind the paintings. Leo fished something out from his tool belt, and then knelt down. He sprayed something in front of him, and gold lasers slowly appeared, glowing threateningly on the floor. Leo whistled. “Watch your step, Pipes, I don’t think these things will just inform about trespassers.” “Please don’t call me with that name,” but Leo wasn’t listening anymore. He was halfway across the hall to the Henry painting, avoiding the lasers while he tiptoed. They arrived in front of the large painting, taking only a couple of seconds to admire the work, then took it down from the post. There was nothing behind it. “Wait, wait,” Leo said, who was searching the wall very closely; “I think I saw a small hole. I need a pin.” Before he could take anything from his belt, Piper handed Leo her hairpin. At first, he stared at her, but then he thanked her and used the accessory to prod the wall, like he was inserting a key. Piper wasn’t doing much on this quest. Leo could handle this all by himself without any of her help. She may perhaps be down at the casino with Jason, who probably was distracting the crowd and fighting monsters. That was more fun. But from the back of her mind, something was telling her that ''everything would go wrong if she had let Leo alone to do this. “Whoa,” Leo gaped, “this is hi-tech stuff.” A panel appeared instead of the wall earlier. It was full of buttons, wires and other things Piper couldn’t recognize. Leo brought out his leather gloves, put on his goggles and went to work. A moment later, an alarm startled the pair. “Leo!” Piper started, but her companion already looked stressed. “I know, just give me a minute…done!” He took of his goggles and eyed Piper, “…and now we have to get out of here.” They started to run toward the oak doors when someone else burst into the room. It was a huge Cyclops wearing a sea-green tuxedo. He was so fat, the buttons of his suit was threatening to fire in different directions. The monster’s huge body was blocking the room’s only exit. He stared at the two with his green blind eye. “Lady Eos is away and you two are here to steal precious stone, eh?” he said, “Well, not until I eat you first!” The Cyclops took out a large baton the size of a tree trunk from his pocket and swung downwards. By instinct, Piper rolled to the left to dodge. She pulled out her dagger, Katoptris, and moved behind the monster’s back. Leo ran in front of the Cyclops, wielding a two-handed sword and was fighting the monster one-on-one, having a baton-and-sword duel. It was very hard to believe that Leo, like his brothers and sisters, had enough strength to wrestle monsters even with his current stature. But it explained why he could carry three-pound large hammers. Piper was tempted to jump at the back of the Cyclops and finish him off when she remembered what Jason told to her. It was something about these kinds of monsters. But the Cyclops knew better than let anyone sneak behind him, for a moment he swatted Leo away and then grasped Piper like a Barbie doll. “Ha! You think you can fool the great Polyphemus? Think again, little girl!” The Cyclops threw his head backwards and laughed. While distracted by his delight, Piper made a quick move with her arm and stabbed the Cyclops’ stomach. Polyphemus released Piper and clenched his wound. It didn’t look like the dagger went deep, but the monster looked furious. “Human,” Polyphemus scoffed, “You’re a tough o--” He was cut off mid-sentence, paused, and then all of a sudden passed out cold on the ground with a huge THUD. A stainless steel wrench clattered on the floor. Leo was behind the KO-ed Cyclops, looking like he threw something one-handed. “Bull’s eye!” he cheered. “I should’ve done that earlier…but now, let’s just get outta here and find Jason!” Piper and Leo ran to the door behind Polyphemus and sprinted through the small hallway. But they both tripped and stumbled on the carpet floor. A small thread caught them off-guard. “We got them, we got them!” a rough voice cheered. Another one said, “Good work, now wake up Polyphemus and let’s bring these two to the dungeons. Lady Eos will be pleased with our catch.” Piper gripped her weapon, though she knew it was useless to attack the tripper while lying face-flat. Someone grabbed her by the legs and dangled in front of a monster. It was one of those Cyclopes in the casinos with their stretched out suits. “I’ll take that, missy.” He made a reach for Piper’s dagger. She lashed her weapon to the monster’s face but the Cyclops was too fast. He swiped of Piper’s dagger with his other big hand. She was about to shout help to Leo when she saw from the corner of her eye that he was also being held tightly by the other Cyclops, who came back with a dazed Polyphemus. Three biggies over two small people. She didn’t like it, but she’ll have to charm-speak them out of this mess. “Uh, hey guys,” Piper said soothingly to the Cyclopes, which took a lot of energy coming from her. “Can you, like, put us down so we could escape and find our friend down at the casino?” Two of them looked dreamily at Piper, muttered “Yes, your queenliness,” and put her and Leo down (who landed on his back) safely. Polyphemus simply stared at his fellow brethrens, looking annoyed. “What are you doing, you pair of dolts!?” he shouted; he didn’t look he was affected. “Why are you releasing them?” “And can I have my weapon back?” Piper added. The Cyclops who took hold of her gave Katoptris and bowed. “Thanks,” she said, “Now, go to sleep and don’t wake up until the next hundred years, or something around that.” Surprisingly, the two Cyclopes lied down on the floor and started to snore. Polyphemus was starting to fight the urge to obey Piper’s order. While he still maintained his rather serious face, Leo gave Piper a thumbs-up. “Let’s go,” he said and they started to sprint toward the end of the hall where another door was waiting for them. But the real problem was still on their tail. “''You cannot escape easily!” Polyphemus shouted. Leo pulled a grenade from his tool belt. He threw it to his back and smoke started to gather, overflowing the hallway. Piper’s throat was drying up from inhaling the smoke. She couldn’t see clearly, but Leo grabbed her arm and led the way through many corridors, often entering monster locker rooms (Leo and Piper had to move quickly out of the room before the giants in leather pants would catch them), rest rooms (toilets broke out from their places and started chasing the two momentarily) and dressing rooms (Piper noticed her Latino friend staring at some women). Finally, they burst into the main casino attraction. And then they saw a distressed and tired Jason fighting a good number of dracanae. His clothes were soiled with his own blood and he looked like he was having a hard time opening his right eye. ''What on earth happened to him? “Jason!” Piper called out, trying to catch his attention. Jason turned and eyed at them. “G-guys, I’m in a little trouble here…” Leo wasted no time as he rushed to his friend’s side and helped him up to his feet. “We have to go, buddy.” Leo said to him. Piper moved to Jason’s defense, parried a few attacks from the monsters with her dagger, and showed the way to the (only) exit of the building. For a while, she didn’t want to take one more look at Jason. It was bad enough to see him injured all over. By-standers watched incredulously; some looked amused, like they were watching a stage play. Polyphemus busted in and stared at the retreating group. “Come back here!” he bellowed. Like they’ll ever want to be eaten or captured by fat Cyclopes. Reaching the exit, Piper let her two friends go first. Then she turned to take another look at the whole place. Sirens were blaring, red lights flashing, and monsters were gathering all over the place. If only they weren’t on a quest, visiting Vegas might not be a bad idea at all. She exited the building with Jason and Leo, running through the streets like they had never ran before. Category:Fan Fiction